In Never Let Me Go, characters constantly indulge in fantasy and make believe. Hailsham, which is where the main protagonists Cathy and Tommy live, even has the word “sham” in the title. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a sham is “something that is not what it appears to be and that is meant to trick or deceive people.” The reason the students spend so much time fantasizing and daydreaming because they are harping on their unfulfilled potential. It is normal to ponder the future and what could have been yet the students ponder on an unhealthy level. We need fantasy in our lives in order to create ideas. However, we need reality in order to enact those ideas. The students exist in an alternate reality. They are destined to become organ donors. Essentially, their fates have already been decided for them. When your fate has already been decided for you, you become a shell of yourself because you have no free will. Daydreaming provides an escape from the harsh reality that is soon to be bestowed upon them. if the students actually had some autonomy over their lives, they would not daydream so much.

A recurring motif in Never Let Me Go is copies. The students themselves are copied from models from the outside world. Given that this is a science fiction novel, copies are usually a sign of a dystopia disguised as a utopia. In fact, being cloned is generally seen as a negative thing, an act of desperation. The copies isolate themselves from the rest of society. All the talk about Ruth’s “potential” is treayed as a tragedy because she had the opportunity to make something of herself yet she took the easy way out through cloning. In short, cloning stifles creativity. The point the novel is trying to make is that whole copying is okay in some instances, over-copying shows a lack of creativity. It is okay to copy but you should still make a copy into your own work. Bring your own interpretation to the table without using soneone else’s interpretation without crediting them.

The question I would like to pose is why is the title of the novel Alias Grace? An alias is known as an assumed identity. Maybe the title could reference the fact that Grace struggles with finding and understanding her own identity. Memories are heavily linked to your sense of self, and Grace struggles to recall several memories. Grace’s struggle with her own identity could also reference the feminist themes of the novel. In the 19th century, women were seen as docile, submissive, domestic, helpless and quiet. If a woman committed a crime, she could always claim insanity as a defense. Grace figures that she is insane because that is what society has told her. Claiming women were insane was a way to keep them in line since women were stereotyped to be overly emotional and hysterical anyway. Simon works with Grace to “cure” her insanity since he believes that Grace’s so-called insanity is just a cover-up for a deeper issue.

In Alias Grace, both Grace and Simon struggle to recollect their memories. In particular, Grace has no memory of tge murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery, and has Simon spends more and more time with Grace, he begins to lose focus. Grace has several traumatic memories, one of which is her own mother’s murder. Grace’s inability to recall certain events could be her repressing her memories. Repression is a defense mechanism in which the mind unconsciously represses memories in order to protect its owner. Grace is using repression as a coping technique. Simon’s interest in dream interpretation harkens back to the Freudian tgeory that dreams are simply repressed memories or visions.

One recurring symbol/motif in Alias Grace are quilts. Grace spends a lot of her time quilting. Back in those days, quilting was seen as a regular pastime for women. Each section of the novel begins with the name of a quilt pattern. Symbolically, the structure of the novel mirrors a quilt: both the characters within the novel and the reader must put together a whole out of separate pieces of cloth. Weaving a quilt is similar to how one “weaves” a tale. There is a prewriting stage, a rough draft stage, a revising stage, a proofreading stage and a final draft stage. At the end of the novel, Grace weaves a Tree of Pardise quilt that corresponds to significant events in her life such as a scrap from Nancy’s dress and Mary’s petticoat. The quilt can also be seen as a metaphor for memories. She is storing all of her best memories in that quilt.

“If we were all on trial for our thoughts, we would all be hanged.” I love this quote because there is so much truth to it. Think about this for a second. We all have “improper” thoughts. If a professor you do not like found out you secretly despised them, they would probably treat you differently. If your spouse/partner found out that you have had second thoughts about them in the past, they would become more insecure and jealous, damaging your relationship with them. If your parents found out that at one point you lied to them or hid something from them, that would destroy any trust you had between you. There is the reason the quote “silence is golden” exists. You cannot let everyone know everything you are thinking. Sometimes it simply is not the right time or place to share those thoughts. The individual may not be mentally strong enough to handle those revelations or they may know exactly what you are thinking but do not want to dwell on it. You cannot always help someone who refuses to listen. Additionally, by not speaking your thoughts aloud, it causes you to listen better so you can know more about the individual before passing judgment.

The unreliable narrator is the trope where the person telling the story is leaving out a vital detail. The most famous and effective use of this trope is in the 2000 film Fight Club. This trope most often pops up in mystery/suspense stories. As he is penning his story, Saleem constantly frets over errors and misinformation. For instance, he gets dates mixed up and forgets about an important election. People say this history is not always accurate because it is “his story”. Saleem’s history of events may be very different from a fellow India’s version of events because Saleem interprets things differently. To some, he may come off as an unreliable narrator. An individual’s account of events is colored by their perception of those particular events. Memories tell stories. Saleem fails to remember certain things which is another reason he may come off as an unreliable narrator.

Discussion Question #1: How could Taiji be considered a “Christ-like” character in the novel? Answer: Taiji is a bit mysterious because no one knows his true age in addition to making references to how he has seen many kings and emperors die, implying immortality.  

Outline:

• Midnight’s Children is similar to the Bible due to the collection of miraculous short stories
• Saleem is possibly Jesus
• Taiji is a mysterious figure since his age is purposely kept vague

“Once I knew where there was a grave with pierced feet carved on the tombstone, which bled once a year.” pg. 11

Discussion Question #2: How does prophecy play a role in the haunting(s) present in Midnight’s Children? Answer: Prophecy is what drives Amina’s anxiety in the novel. Even though it did not come to pass, the anxiety of possibly giving birth to a two-headed child still haunts her to this day, to the point that her anxiety is taking on the form of a ghost.

Outline:

• Ominous words (prophecy)
• Memory
• Paranoia
• Quotes (anecdotal evidence)

“Many years later, at the time of her premature dotage, when all k’nds of ghosts welled out of her past to dance before her eyes, my mother saw once again the peepshow man whom she saved by announcing my coming and who repaid her by leading her to too much prophecy, and spoke to him evenly, without rancour.” pg. 41

The Demon Lover is similar to Mrs. Dalloway in how both novels examine how our pasts come back to haunt us. They even both use the First World War as a plot device. In Mrs. Dalloway, Septimus Warren struggles with PTSD, driven by his haunting experiences fighting in the First World War. His wrestling with his PTSD strains his relationship with his wife and makes him an outsider in society. In The Demon Lover, the titular character is an old flame of the protagonist’s, a soldier who was apparently killed in action in the First World War. At this point in her life, Mrs Drover has married another man and is stressed about having to relocate from her country due to the Second World War. Her anxiety increases when she finds a letter from her thought-to-be-dead lover. Towards the end of the short story, a taxi cab driver, who is revealed to be Mrs Drover’s long lost lover, drives off with her into the night, leaving her fate unknown. 

Continue reading →

The question that A Passage to India poses is if an Englishman and an Indian man can be companions. The UK colonized India not because they wanted to welcome foreigners but for its resources. Aziz holds the British in contempt for this very reason refusing initially to befriend Fielding. It is not until Mrs Moore visits the mosque that he becomes open to the possibility of friendship. Probably because Mrs Moore was actually interested in the culture, not seeking to appropriate it, and had thoroughly researched Muslim customs and traditions. Mrs Moore’s visit to the mosque shows that if you are sensitive to that person’s culture and treat them as an equal, not showing condescending sympathy, there is a possibility for friendship despite any cultural differences.